Sawyer

Name: Sawyer (Not real name¹ )

Occupation: Con Man²

First Appearance: 1×01 – Pilot,Part One

Flashbacks: 1×08 – Confidence Man

Click for Timeline

Pre-Island

In 1976, Sawyer’s mother was killed by his father, who then committed suicide, after she had an affair with – and was conned out of their money by – a con man using the name Sawyer. The young Sawyer wrote a letter to the con man, telling him he was going to find him one day³.

When he was nineteen, he was in debt to some dangerous people and he found ‘a pretty lady with a dumb husband’ and conned them out of their money, essentially becoming the same kind of man who he held responsible for his parents’ deaths, and took the name Sawyer⁴.

Years later, Sawyer ran a con on a woman he was sleeping with, Jess, and her husband David – but eventually walked away from it just as he had the money in hand when he saw their young son, and realized that he was doing exactly what the first Sawyer had done⁵.

At some point, Sawyer and Hibbs worked a job in Tampa – whatever happened, Sawyer felt Hibbs betrayed him and owed him.

In September 2004, Hibbs gave Sawyer a file on a man named Frank Duckett in Sydney who he said was the original Sawyer. Sawyer went to Sydney, obtained a gun and went to kill Duckett. He walked away, unable to do it, and went drinking where he met another American – Christian Shepherd, though he didn’t learn his name. Christian told him that he loved his son, admired him and was proud of him for standing up to him – but he couldn’t tell him because he was weak. He said that if he didn’t want to end up like him he needed to take action on the thing that was bothering him – not realizing that he was giving Sawyer the determination to kill Duckett⁶.

Sawyer went back to Duckett’s work and shot him. As he started to read his letter to him, he and the dying Duckett realized that Hibbs had used Sawyer, and Duckett wasn’t the conman. He died, leaving a regretful Sawyer used and angry⁷.

A few days later before Oceanic 815′s flight, Sawyer was in a police station in Sydney being questioned about a fight⁸.

On the Island

The night of the crash of Oceanic 815, Sawyer stalks through the wreckage smoking a cigarette and not conversing with other survivors. Later, he joins them as the Monster is heard crashing through the jungle.⁹

On the second day, Sawyer accused Sayid of bringing down the aircraft and started a fight – although it was broken up by Jack, much to Sawyer’s disgust. His anger grew when Sayid helped repair the damaged transceiver, to the extent that he joined him, Kate, Boone, Shannon and Charlie on a hike to higher ground to get a clear signal.¹⁰

Clearly distrustful of Sayid, he proved himself somewhat by shooting a rampaging polar bear – although he was disarmed by Kate. Later, he listened as the transceiver picked up a repeating mayday signal in French; the signal had been repeating for over sixteen years.¹¹ That night the group agreed not to tell the rest of the survivors about the signal.¹²

The next day back at the beach, Sawyer looted the fuselage and butted heads with Jack. That night as Mars lay screaming in agony, he suggested to Kate that as she had the gun, she was the only one who could do anything about it. Later, when Mars asked Kate to do just that, she turned to Sawyer to kill him – but Sawyer botched the shot, leaving it up to Jack to finally put Mars to rest.¹³

Two days later, Hurley and Sawyer came to blows as Sawyer was hoarding the last of the food from the plane – specifically, peanuts.¹⁴

The following day, Sawyer bartered the last of his water to Jin in return for a fish, and later was falsely accused by Kate and Sayid of stealing the camp’s supply¹⁵.

The next day, Sawyer broke up a fight between Michael and Jin and later decided to stay on the beach with the signal fire rather than relocate to the caves with Jack and some others¹⁶.

When Charlie told him that Jack was trapped in a cave-in, Sawyer volunteered to tell Kate, who was in the jungle with Sayid planting antennae to triangulate the French signal. However before he had a chance, Kate laid into him verbally and he decided to withhold the information. When he eventually told her about the cave-in, she left in disgust and it was left to Sawyer to signal and turn on the antenna at the appropriate time, which he did¹⁷.

The next day Sawyer beat Boone after finding him looting his stash, trying to find Shannon’s asthma medicine. Later, he was confronted first by Jack, then Kate as they tried to get the same information. The following day, Sayid – with Jack present – tortured him to get the medicine but he insisted he’d only tell Kate, demanding a kiss from her – and getting it – only to reveal he didn’t have it. Sayid didn’t believe him and fought him, accidentally stabbing him, although Jack stopped him from bleeding out. As he recuperated, Kate realized he had written the letter himself. He confessed that he had, although he’d eventually come to be exactly like the man he hated. He then told Kate he didn’t need her pity and to get the hell away from him¹⁸.

Sawyer was still on the outs with the group a few days later when Kate advised him to make more of an effort. He showed up at the island’s golf tournament to do just that, wagering some of his stash against Jack’s final shot¹⁹.

A few days later, Hurley convinced Sawyer to give him the manifest for the plane to score points²⁰.

When Sawyer found that Sayid had returned to camp, he confronted the injured man but ultimately decided not to take revenge on him for his treatment at his hands²¹.

Several days later, Sawyer and Kate found a metal attache case whilst swimming in a pool. Sawyer kept it mainly because Kate wanted it. She tried to take it from him on two more occasions, but refused to tell him why she wanted it. Finally she enlisted Jack, who got it from Sawyer by threatening to withhold his meds²².

Sawyer later took Claire’s diary from her bags. He eventually relinquished it to Charlie, pretending he’d read it – although Kate called him on this²³.

After Claire returned from the jungle and Ethan killed Scott to get her back, Sawyer joined Locke, Sayid and Kate in using Claire as bait to trap him. Ethan was caught by Jack, but was killed by Charlie before he could answer any questions²⁴.

That night, Sawyer’s tent was destroyed by a boar which later attacked him again while he was looking for it; on both occasions, Sawyer thought he heard the whispers. He decided to hunt it down and was joined by Kate.That night they played a drinking game at night, when he revealed to her that he had killed someone. When Sawyer found the boar he let it go, apparently equating it with Frank Duckett, the man he killed in Sydney. Later, when he returned the gun to Jack he realized that the man he met in the bar in Sydney was Jack’s father²⁵.

Sawyer bought his way onto Michael’s raft by trading him supplies he needed, and immediately suspected Jin when the raft was set on fire. He captured Jin and brought him back to the beach – only to have Locke suggest that it was more likely that it was whoever else was on the island that did it²⁶.

Timeline

1. 1×08 [↩]
2. 1×08 [↩]
3. 1×08 [↩]
4. 1×08 [↩]
5. 1×08 [↩]
6. 1×16 [↩]
7. 1×16 [↩]
8. 1×13 [↩]
9. 1×01 [↩]
10. 1×02 [↩]
11. 1×02 [↩]
12. 1×03 [↩]
13. 1×03 [↩]
14. 1×04 [↩]
15. 1×05 [↩]
16. 1×06 [↩]
17. 1×07 [↩]
18. 1×08 [↩]
19. 1×09 [↩]
20. 1×10 [↩]
21. 1×11 [↩]
22. 1×12 [↩]
23. 1×14 [↩]
24. 1×15 [↩]
25. 1×16 [↩]
26. 1×17 [↩]

Tags: Characters, Sawyer